Brotherly Love

Big brother feeding little sister for the first time!

3-6 month snow suit--which is a bit tight!

He will always be my baby!

She hates her mittens and manages to take them off every time we go somewhere. This time she put her mittens by her ears!

Hmmm....I wonder how Ky got that black nostril.....

Oh...now I know why!

Alaina loves it when Ky plays with her!

An icicle!

Alaina didn't like being bundled up outside....

Alaina is my big girl. Before her 4 month appointment we were taking guesses on weight. Rob and I were in the 15 lb range, my friends in the 16 lb range. Well turns out she is 16 lb. 14 oz (96% for weight) and 25.75" (92%) for height. The funny thing is ---Ky, at this age, was a pound heavier and an inch shorter!! So he was definitely the "chub" of the family--unfortunately for Alaina she carries much of her weight in those cute little cheeks of hers. And those cheeks get pinched by people WAY TOO often! Along with this her feet have just become enormous--and I mean fat. They were so tiny and thin and then they blew up. She can't fit into most of her shoes anymore. :(

She is growing so fast and doing new things all the time. Now when I go to feed her she gets so excited she starts to giggle! Yes giggle! She also grabs everything! I am losing a lot of hair because she grabs and yanks!

Alaina smacks her lips. She learned this from our friend Wendy. It was very neat to see her copy Wendy. Now she quite regularly smacks her lips. She also has become a regular giggler. She squeals and laughs. It always puts a smile on your face to hear her.

Alaina has also become a master razzer. However she is a very messy, drooly razzer. You may notice that in a lot of her pics there is a big pool of drool on her chin--that's because she spits as she razzes. It is very messy and gross--good thing she is a baby and can get away with it. If I walked around razzing like she does I know I would just get funny looks.

Tummy time has become null and void with Alaina now that she is rolling over. I have been trying to work with her on sitting -and she can sit a few seconds on her own--but she wants to stand. So trying to get her to sit is a real battle. She will plant her heels down and then arch her back to get out of the sitting position and into a standing position. I am thinking she may end up skipping crawling like Ky. We will have to wait and see.

She has also become quite the giggler. She cracks herself up. She will be by herself and then just shriek and laugh. She is very silly. Her greatest obsession is her brother though. She really loves him and could just watch him forever. Aunt Liz and Uncle Adam got the kids the big bro and lil' sis shirts--I love these shirts!. You can see in the pics how she just likes to watch him--and grab him--she is a very grabby girl.

Kylan loves fire alarms. The boy is obsessed. We can never go anywhere without him checking that there are fire alarms. And when people come over, he shows them all of our fire alarms. He became obsessed because unfortunately we have had the fire alarm at the YMCA go off way too often--I think 4 times in the past year or so. Then I had to explain to him what the alarms were and why they are there--and TADA---obsessed boy. Perhaps he will grow up to be a fire fighter?

In the last blog, I mentioned Ky and his love for bowling. Well, I convinced my play group to go again and he had just as much fun as before--and this time I brought my camera!

OK--I am not going to put any gross details here (Ky you can ask me when you are all grown up and I will be happy to tell you--and this will not be one I will forget)--but Ky had a potty incident--his first public incident the other day at the bowling alley. Let's just say I ended up in the men's restroom with him--the women's was closed due to cleaning--and there was NO waiting--the boy had to go. I am very glad there were no men in there. (and yes I did knock before I entered) and surprisingly nobody walked in on us.

I am not sure if I mentioned this in the last blog, but at the beginning of January, Ky went for his 6 month eye checkup. We were told that he is 20/60 & 20/70. The doc was going to write Ky a prescription for glasses since he is near-sighted. I asked him if we could hold off for now--especially since he isn't in school or anything. The doc agreed and will continue to keep an eye on how his vision develops. Ky will need glasses once he gets in school for sure. I am sad about this, but at least his vision is still better than his daddy's at this point.

I caught Ky "black" handed the other day. We have been having issues with the boy picking his nose--EWWW!! Well the other day he was coloring with markers, and then I saw him disappear in the living room. He came back a few minutes later with black hands and a black nostril. I asked him "did you go in the living room to pick your nose?" and the nice thing about 2 year olds is that they don't lie. "Yes I did" he responded. You can see the pic of that above---I couldn't let a memory like this get away. Also if you look at his hand you will see that there is marker around his fingers. He LOVES to trace hands. It's his new thing right now.

Last Blog I mentioned Ky and his tantrums. Well I am happy to report he (and I ) are doing much better now. I have begun to simplify my life and spend more time with him. Alaina's naptime in the morning is critical for us to get that good one on one time together. The house is a little messier and I am not accomplishing as much as I would like, but it is definitely worth having a happier boy. Today begins week 3 of this new journey with him. He has become more affectionate not only to me, but also to Alaina and I think Daddy as well. I feel so bad that it took me this long to figure this out. But at least now I can be sure I am keeping his love tank on full--and if there are future tantrums that seem out of place I can reflect on how much time I have been spending with him.

We celebrated Ryan, Lisa's, and Debi's b'day on Super Bowl Sunday. This is probably the first year in a very long time that I had no idea who was playing. Rob told me that he was very disappointed in me when I told him I didn't know who was playing. I think the added kid has made it a lot harder to pay attention to things like that. Birthday time was good--however scattered since it was the Superbowl. Ryan made a brief appearance to blow out his candles and then disappeared. Ky had a lot of fun playing with his cousin Dominic. They rolled the ball in the hall for awhile and then they chased each other around. They were too cute. They are good friends.

We had an extremely warm day the other day--I think it got into the 50's--so we went on one of our family walks--something we haven't done in a LONG LONG time. The pics of Alaina bundled up in her white snowsuit show her on that day. I think she really enjoyed the walk. We were all soaked due to the giant puddles by the time we got home. I can't wait for it to get warm again!

There are also pics of her and Ky outside on a snowy day. It was a warmer snowy day and I wanted to get Ky out. Ky really had fun making snowballs and getting icicles. Alaina however did not enjoy the weather. My neighbor and I ended up doing a trade off. She sent out her kids and I watched them and she took in Alaina. Next thing I know my neighbor is walking back over because Alaina is crying. She thought she was hungry or maybe upset over a scratch on her leg. I told my neighbor it was probably "stranger anxiety" since she doesn't know her well. My neighbor didn't think so. Then I really started to doubt my instincts with my own parenting (I mean hey she had three kids, I only had two.) The funny thing is that I took Alaina back inside all concerned about this scratch--just to be reassured that I did know my child. Alaina became instantly happy when she was back in my arms. Boy parenting always has you second guessing yourself!

And finally....

In case you didn't notice, I have been putting my blog to work for me. I have had a lot of people asking for recipes and such--and lets just say my cookbooks are starting to look ragged. So I thought I would start my own online cookbook. There are lots of online cookbooks out there, but many don't allow you to give access to others--so that is where I put my blog to work. If you notice on the right hand side of my blog is "Jess' Recipe box". From now on I will be updating the food categories with my favorite recipes. Please feel free to look through some of the recipes--and give me feedback if you try some. It is going to take some time for me to get all my recipes up--so visit often to see what new stuff I have put up. Also--criteria for the recipes to make it in the blog--It has to be something I make or have made which I thought was good, or it needs to be a family recipe. There are a few family recipes up already which honestly I haven't tried, but I will soon--if they are dreadfully awful I will take them down. If you have a recipe you would like me to try out--please send it to me.

Also I have a preschool box of links. This is some of the curriculum I am using for Kylan as we work through the alphabet. Feel free to browse--or if you have any good websites let me know so I can use them too. BTW--bragging moment--my boy now recognizes all his letters big and small! YEAH KY! I know he will be reading soon! He already recognizes probably about 10 - 15 words. Back to the blog...

I love my blog! It really has been great at helping me keep memories and now keep my life more organized....Soon I also hope to add my favorite craft links. Let me know what you think!